The Corporate Director, Social Services And Wellbeing presented a report which informed Cabinet of the outcome of the independent evaluation of the existing regional adoption arrangements and their appropriateness with the creation of the new Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership. She also sought approval from Cabinet to proceed with the recommendations contained in the report.

The Corporate Director, Social Services And Wellbeing explained that as of 1 April 2019, healthcare services for people in the area of Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) have been provided by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board instead of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board to align decision-making across health and local government.

She added that whilst the disruption to general services may not have been as significant as that to be experienced by the Health Boards, the boundary changes impacted on a number of BCBC services. She explained that due to the transfer, BCBC required a thorough evaluation of the current regional adoption collaborative arrangements against alternative options.  The options for evaluation were summarised below:

Option 1: Continue with existing Regional collaborative arrangements i.e. Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council remain part of the Page 136 Vale, Valleys and Cardiff Adoption Region and Bridgend County Borough Council remain part of the former Western Bay Region (now West Glamorgan).

Option 2: Bridgend County Borough Council leave West Glamorgan Regional collaborative and join the Vale, Valleys and Cardiff Regional collaborative.

Option 3: Bridgend County Borough Council, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil create a new Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional (Adoption) Collaborative.

The Corporate Director, Social Services And Wellbeing explained that the project was carried out during October – December 2019 and involved a series of face to face interviews with individuals and small groups, a workshop with staff from the existing regional team, conference calls and the reading and analysing of a number of documents.

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing noted that whilst from a service delivery perspective it was deemed that the existing arrangements needed to remain in place for the medium term at least, this had already and would continue to pose some challenges for Bridgend County Borough Council in its strategic planning and partnership arrangements.

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help thanked the corporate director for the comprehensive report and welcomed the recommendations. He stated that the decisions going forward were very sensible for the adoption service and for BCBC.  He added that we would continue to work towards further alignment within the health board regions and on the work the Council does.

The Leader added that there was a strong importance and need for people to adopt children in care and although it was a long process, it was a robust process as BCBC had a duty of care on these children. 

RESOLVED:            That Cabinet approved the following  recommendations as listed in Appendix 1:

• Continue with existing regional collaborative arrangements: i.e. Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Councils remain part of the Vale, Valleys and Cardiff Adoption Region and Bridgend County Borough Council remains part of the former Western Bay Region (now West Glamorgan).

• These arrangements remain in place for a period of a minimum of 3 years. This will allow time for consultation with key stakeholders and early planning for the longer term

• Begin work with key stakeholders to identify the specific challenges for Bridgend County Borough Council remaining as part of the Western Bay Regional Collaborative and to develop strategies for mitigating some of these issues.

Inform the Chairperson of the Western Bay and Vale, Valleys and Cardiff Management Boards, the Chairperson of the National Adoption Service Governance Board and the National Adoption Service Director of Operations about the outcome of the Project.